Tuesday, 7 May 2019

Issues in Patent Renewals: A Workable Solution?

The patent renewal business is apparently undergoing some
change.Please see the press release
below concerning a business attempting to address that change and provide a
workable solution.

Patentrenewal.com makes patent renewals profitable (again)
for law firmsOver the past decade,
there has been a race to the bottom from IP service providers to deliver the
cheapest patent renewals. Falling profit margins combined with the complexity
and risk of handling patent renewals globally has resulted in many IP law firms
exiting the renewals industry. In an effort to reverse this trend,
patentrenewal.com promises to make IP law firms’ patent renewals business
profitable again.

Patentrenewal.com is a white-label web-based platform that gives IP law firms
the ability to onboard their clients and sell the renewals service as if it
were their own. Once a client’s patent portfolio is uploaded onto the platform,
the renewal payments are automatically processed based on the client’s renewal
instructions and can be viewed in real-time. Invoicing, emails and payment
transfers are handled by the system, removing another administrative burden.
The crucial selling-point for IP law firms is the ability to quickly scale up
and onboard new clients without worrying about their administrative capacity or
compromising their brand. “It’s an interesting case for automation because,
contrary to the scepticism and fear surrounding technology in the legal
industry, our product actually makes firms’ renewals business viable again” -
Mads Jørgensen, CTO.

The strategy goes against the common trend in the IP space, but Jesper Jensen,
the company’s CEO, remains bullish on the decision to integrate with firms as
opposed to being another service provider: “Originally our plan was to build an
automated renewals service exclusively towards IP law firms’ clients. But we
soon realised that patent renewals is an important strategic touch point for
clients and firms, and the connection between client and law firm was something
that was being eroded by the service providers, who only focus on making
payments.”

There were other reasons too, for the Copenhagen-based
company to enter the market. Scepticism and paranoia have spread in the
renewals market, as an entire industry has cropped up with the sole purpose of
prosecuting renewal providers for malpractice after several investigations have
uncovered fraudulent overcharging practices by some of the big renewals
providers. In an effort to reinstate trust, the team at patentrenewal.com has
focused on price transparency from the start. All charges, down to
insignificant postal fees, are shown throughout the platform and foreign
exchange rates are openly advertised. “Working closely with the firms and
focusing on transparency has allowed our young company to become a trusted
partner and gain traction in a very short period of time.” - Frederik Wagner,
CPO.

The company’s direction and focus has paid off, and after only being in the
market with their product for a year, the company is responsible for more than
6000 patent renewals in 60+ countries for IP law firms in Northern Europe and
has a growing waiting list of law firms. “We know that we’re up against some
big forces, and we have to work hard to reestablish trust in the industry as a
whole, as well as proving that our youth isn’t a disadvantage” - Nicki Friis,
COO. The company continues to grow and has raised two rounds of funding (in
2017 and 2018) from private and institutional investors to quadruple their
annual renewals in 2019.

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